Reviews

““Francesco Nicola Fago, cantatas and ariettas for solo voice and continuo”“
First solo Cd in world premier recording for the British discographic label Toccata Classics (July 2016) with the baroque ensemble “Santa Teresa dei Maschi” in Bari, Italy (Sabino Manzo,
harpsichord and conductor) – Preface in the libretto by Dinko Fabris

Amadeus (Piero Mioli, July 2017) Translation from Italian: “(…) a sweet and homogeneous voice, exquisite but not thin, mild in the recitatives (pronounced with simplicity and elegance) and perfectly singable in the arias (…) He is also good at coloraturas, Strano, a just twenty-eight-year-old neo-musician from Catania, coming from Dutch studies and fortunes (…)”

L’Opera (Alessandro Mormile, March 2017) Translation from Italian: “Riccardo Angelo Strano, in his first solo recording, appears to be an expert in Baroque vocal style for writing himself the finest ornamentations of the “Da Capo” sections. But we come to the voice that is well emitted, with a falsetto of natural seducing timbre, elegant and never artificially supported by a sharp diction (…) and the good propensity to coloraturas.”

Translation from Italian: “Riccardo Angelo Strano proves to be a very focused singer concerning the historical and philological executive practice. He succeeds in translating every work with an ever-clear discourse, along with a dramatic attention to details that is essentially responsive to the variety of the invention and to the peculiarity of writing by bending his voice (with a very interesting timbre) with measured ductility in order to bring out different emotions for each single aria (…) at the same time he revitalizes the recitatives.”

BaroquiadeS.com (Jean-Luc Izard, November 2016)

Translation from French: “His diction is chiseled, the registers very homogeneous, the style greatly elegant and the low register is deep and full of sound.”

ApeMusicale (Stefano Ceccarelli, February 2017) Translation from Italian: “The empathy among the musicians is enviable and it produces a very high performance. Strano’s skills are a warm and ductile voice, well centered in the various registers, expressive, therefore particularly suitable for these compositions which are not easy to execute since they are perhaps written for ‘Nicolino’. The phrasing, often supported by a genuine and emotional transport, is remarkable for shades, nuances and preciousness.”

OperaClick(Bruno Tredicine, January 2017)

Translation from Italian: “In these compositions Riccardo Angelo Strano (who composed also the ornamentations for the “Da Capo” sections) gives nostalgic and acutely sore atmospheres with an incisive expressiveness. The young countertenor strikes an absolute naturalness of timbre, never artificial as it often happens in this type of register. The voice is soft and succulent with burnished color, and his singing on the breath-line makes the line light and slim. Though he is very young, he has already got a mature consciousness with which he adheres to the poetics of the various cantatas with the proper attention to the every word, accents and phrasing exalted by extreme clarity of diction”

Teatro.it (Francesco Rapaccioni, January 2017)

Translation from Italian: “The protagonist of this recording is the countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano who exemplaryly proposes eight cantatas by Fago. They are particularly complex to perform but the young artist succeeds in giving an excellent result with fluid and extended voice without smudges (…) Fago’s pieces are here performed by Strano with technical elegance and vocal charm; its homogeneous emission and energetic vocality expresses unusual force and pathos in making each performance unique and inventive (…) But in each of these, Strano can perfectly combine the beauty of singing with a remarkable personal and emotional participation.”

Il Trillo Parlante (Fabio Tranchida, November 2016)

Translation from Italian: “The very good countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano emphasizes the various motions of mind aroused by recitation, always rippled and never static. Suspensions and openings make all these parts which introduce each aria really essential and his voice well emphasizes them. It is a warm and compact voice even in a more difficult range among the other lyrical voices, and it is pleasing to be listened to. Even in the passage to more acute notes we notice a uniformity in favor of a balanced singing and dark colors (…) Strano’s voice has a perfect voice timbre for these sweetness, with continuous sighs and delicate accents.”

BelliniNews (Giovanni Pasqualino, November 2016)

Translation from Italian: “A singer with a strong and secure vocal technique, he also shows a great talents in the messa di voce, sounds onset, legato, piano notes, ornamentations and even more in both power of sound and delicacy’s accuracy. His sophisticated musicality also allows him to give in every passage performed a pathos and a vibrant passion that are the indispensable and inevitable elements of any interpretation that can be defined as highly incisive and meaningful one. It should also be pointed out that all the ornamentations of every piece “Da Capo” section were composed by him, revealing remarkable and inventive composition qualities in each of these.”

OperaLibera.net (Margherita Panarelli, November 2016)

Translation from Italian: “The fresh agility and clarity of Strano’s voice offer a peculiar charm to the performance of the featured pieces in the disc and the excellent technique supports it easily: vocal agility, sudden changes of registers and other embellishments are all dealt with gentleness, tastefulness and accurateness ( …) The precise intonation of Strano’s cristalline voice timbre perfectly matches with the composer’s intentions.”

RaimondoDiSangro.wordpress.com(Raimondo Di Sangro, Giugno 2017)

Translation from Italian: “Riccardo Angelo Strano succeeds splendidly in each cantata (…) An inventive that never leads to greatness’ mania (as often happens with countertenors), a refined taste without useless or superfluous embellishments; the ornamentations we listen to are always fit or functional and the ultimate effect is to be able to finally hear a clear and safe voice without any blur.
And not for last, recitatives are also well accurate, with an intense and intelligible sense of the word itself (really rare!) (…) Strano gifts are different and multiple: the voice is warm and well centered in the various registers, he is able to be expressive (…) An adaptable voice to the profane songs that were probably written for a famous castrato of the time, Nicolò Grimaldi called Nicolino(…)”

KulturKompasset.com (Bruno Tredicine, 08/08/2016) * “Among the singers, outstanding countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano distinguished himself in the double role of Thirsis and Bacchus.
This young Sicilian artist captures with a fluidity in his singing and a uniform timbre thanks to a voice that doesn’t let nothing to desire in terms of extension: solid well timbred in the low notes and with shining high notes. Expressivity and magnetic stage presence make Strano an artist not to be missed.”

Teatro.it (Mirko Berolini, 04/08/2016)- Translated from Italian “Strano has once again proven to possess an excellent countertenor voice with a rich sound, always compact along the whole range and the with an emission very well maintained and clean.”

“The protagonist of this single act for the Court of Hanover was Riccardo Angelo Strano, as for La lotta d’Ercole con Acheloo, countertenor from the beautiful stage presence that has perturbed the audience in today’s edition of Baccanali. We already heard him in Giulio Cesare in Turin and now he’s an established countertenor with a burnished voice, with a soft and easy coloratura. Always inside his role, he never looked the conductor for the attacks, thus creating a character always dropped in the scene that interacts in the opening scene with two dancers in a continuous deeply erotic game whose Baccanali was the example. Strano appears at the beginning and at the end as Bacco, creating the right work frame.”

Ape Musicale (Francesco Lora, 30/07/2016)- Translated from Italian

“To keep in the monitor, once again, the countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano: his solid Italian technique, which wins on colleagues educated in German or British contexts, gives him richness of harmonics, roundness of emission and an extension which maintains the continuity of timber from high notes to the chest register; he fully deserves then,the main role of Bacco combined with Tirsi.”

GbOpera (Lorenzo Mattei, 20/07/2016)- Translated from Italian “For the Alto Riccardo Angelo Strano (which in 2014 had interpreted Acheloo) it was an encore that gave confirmation of his talents as a singer and actor: his timber is indeed wonderful even in the central and lower area (the one where falsettists are more at risk) (…) he showed an achieved maturity and a congeniality towards this difficult repertoire. “

“Double commitment is up to Riccardo Strano Angelo, which is Tirsi along the course of the action, but in the epilogue – with unexpected metamorphosis by Mauro and Steffani – sings also the role of Bacco. The countertenor from Catania stands out not only for the technical safety, but also for his ability to enhance the sense of the words; magnetic and touching was, in particular, his interpretation of the last aria, A goder io mi preparo, with whom he has enchanted the numerous audience.”

“Good the cast in which stands Riccardo Angelo Strano (Student of Belcanto Academy “Rodolfo Celletti” in A.A. 2014), in the dual role of Bacco and Tirsi, by the excellent soprano tessitura for which the work appeared written ad hoc (…)”.

OperaClick (Dino Foresio, 29/07/2016)- Translated from Italian

“The alto Riccardo Angelo Strano has confirmed his uncommon vocal and stage talents in the role of Bacco, a true deus ex machina (…)”.

* “ When the vocal charme emerges, the reality turns upside down (…) in this way, without many efforts and with a natural elegance onstage, the Italian countertenor was able to debut in our country with the necessary braveness to be become unforgettable (…) Strano kept the audience enchanted by his vocal timber (…) and when it was possible to listen to the first notes of Alto Giove by Porpora’s Polifemo, the enchantment stole the breath. Riccardo phrasing was a slow but inexorable crescendo showing the exact way to tame every vocal difficulty (…) Son qual nave, aria made famous by Farinelli, with a smiling Riccardo showing how his voice is able to reach every vocal virtuosity of range, without loosing brightness, modulations and emotions (…) “

“ Riccardo Angelo Strano (countertenor) gave careful modulation to the not easy score written for his role, smartly put by Orff as ancient ages’ heritage and their continuation through the future. Sonorities and, above all, the artistic behaviours praiseworthy confirm this young artist, culturally raised in Catania before raising to the greatest Flamish musical features, adding this achievement in Catania to his collection of international successes”

“Beautiful colour, full in every part of the range, always sweet and homogeneous emission, with a master use (very rare) of range passaggi, excellent pronunciation, good phrasing, coloraturas, big expressivity and musicality, in particular in the nard ornamentations composed by himself”.

“Riccardo Angelo Strano, that we already listened some year ago, not only confirms the talent already shown in the past, but he increased his artistic maturity, showing a compact and sure technique, joined to a fine musicality and expressive sensibility. Moreover he faced with aristocratic confidence every trill, gruppetto, acciaccatura, passaggio. His phrasing resulted absolutely precise and clear as well as his diction was always accurate and limpid”

“…with his mellow voice color, his uniform emission, with his eenergetic diction, Strano proves how to continue famous castrati’s vocal heritage not only in the costumes but also in a healthy singing, no matter the name given to the vocal range; the stage animal , breezy as a baroque singer of 24 y.o. can be, isn’t less interesting than the singer.”

Teatro.it (Mirko Bertolini 25/07/2014) – Translated from Italian

“ Good the very young singers, from which countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano emerges: a full timber, always compact through the whole range very well cared, clean, harmonious, well trained and with beautiful high notes. Surely one of the most interesting countertenor voices nowadays, without imperfections, acid or scratchy tones which often characterize, unfortunately, this kind of voice. Fully in the role of Acheloo, he demonstrated to have not just a beautiful voice but also distinguished stage talent”

FameDiSud.it (Enzo Garofalo 02/08/2014) – Translated from Italian

“Acheloo love tensions, found their expression in countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano voice, really remarkable for vocal control, phrasing and musicality; these qualities, combined with his very young age, his stage temperament and with the divine nature of the character, were able to make sound natural also an artificial voice, as the countertenors’ one usually is.”

OperaWorld.es (Domenico Gatto 08/08/2014) – Translated from Italian

“ Of a good level also Riccardo Angelo Strano in the role of the unlucky Acheloo, musical countertenor with a very present voice and a very personal voice colour”

OpernWelt.de ( OPERALIVELY.COM 12/09/2014 – Originally published in English) “ One should also keep an eye on the countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano, who sang the role of Acheloo with a ‘sovereign’ combination of sweet tone, vocal power, perfectly balanced registers and a demonic stage presence that predestines him for the roles of villains”

” Took by his hand and gently lulled , we were taken into the classical singing world by an intense , extraordinary , exemplary but especially exciting RiccardoAngelo Strano , accompanied at guitar and at the harp by the elegant Affinity Duet; The countertenor has once again proved his immense talent by capturing even the most timid breaths , and then releasing bursts of long applause of appreciation even by those who had never had the pleasure to hear it. “

“ GLI ORTI ESPERIDI ” by N.Porpora (Italian premiere in modern times – Neaples, October 2013)

OperaClick.com (Bruno Tredicine, 24/11/’13) – Translated from Italian

“Riccardo Angelo Strano ,countertenor , was a Palemone in absolute evidence: from its first entrance he was highlighted by the considerable vocal talents : a rich timber , compact along all the range, with a very well studied vocal emission which combined with a great expressiveness , always in style with musical dictation and a conscious stage presence. ”

CriticaClassica.worldpress.com (06/127’13) – Translated from Italian

“Among all the singers, in evidence above the others were Maria Grazia Schiavo in the role of Venere( …)and the young countertenor from Catania Riccardo Angelo Strano , in the role of Palemone , who immediately met the favour of the public, both for an exceptional voice from all points of view as well as for a stage presence out of the ordinary. The presence of two artists so good, ended up perhaps to overshadow the other three protagonists … “

“Remarkable and vibrant the presence of the countertenor Riccardo Angelo Strano in the role of “ L’Innocente”, originally given to a mezzo-soprano en travesti who played the male role . This, which made the interpreter closer to the character , has helped to make more meaningful the theatrical aspect of this matrix realist , where there are already quite a few decadence suggestions of the twentieth century . “

“Rarity in the field of classical music … countertenor voice for which distinguishes our young countryman, Richard Angelo Strano…a robust and smooth voice, absolute security both in the high range and (unusual prodigy) in the low one: and then a passion, an ability to communicate which marks those who are inspired by the art and knows how to convey his inspiration…new talent of V.Bellini’s homeland…”

“Riccardo Angelo Strano has demonstrated a strong and fierce technique combined with an exquisite musicality and a high school of philological musical reading, qualities that have allowed him to offer to the crowded public, absolutely meaningful interpretations full of charm…”

“…Riccardo Angelo Strano has been distinguished: with a crystalline, clean, harmonious, well trained voice with beautiful high notes he superbly personified the role of an ephebic Nerone, with a languid and perverse eye but with a weak character…”